The Biology of Human Survival

Life and Death in Extreme Environments

Claude A. Piantadosi

This fascinating book explains how humans can live in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, using modern concepts of stress, tolerance and adaptation. The book examines how individuals cope with life under extremes of immersion, heat, cold and altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in the responses needed to escape or to adapt. It also explores how humanity deals with problems of adaptation, first by trial and error, then by scientific experimentation, and finally through technological innovation.

The Biology of Human Survival

Life and Death in Extreme Environments

Claude A. Piantadosi

Description

The range of environments in which people can survive is extensive, yet most of the natural world cannot support human life. The Biology of Human Survival identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under Nature's most austere conditions. The book examines how individuals survive when faced with extremes of immersion, heat, cold or altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in optimizing physiological function in order to provide time to escape or to adapt. In illustrating how human biology adapts to extremes, the book also explains how we learn to cope by blending behavior andbiology, first by trial and error, then by rigorous scientific observation, and finally by technological innovation. The book describes life-support technology and how it enables humans to enter once unendurable realm, from the depths of the ocean to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Finally, it explores the role that advanced technology might play in special environments of the future, such as long journeys into space.

The Biology of Human Survival

Life and Death in Extreme Environments

Claude A. Piantadosi

Table of Contents

1. The Human Environment2. Survival and Adaptation3. Cross-Acclimation4. Food for Thought5. Water and Salt6. Water That Makes Men Mad7. Tolerance to Heat8. Endless Oceans of Sand9. Hypothermia10. Life on the Crystal Desert11. Suvival in Cold Water12. Air as Good as We Deserve13. Bends and Rapture of the Deep14. Sunken Submarines15. Climbing Higher16. Into the Wild Blue Yonder17. G Whiz18. The Gravity of Micro-gravity19. Weapons of Mass Destruction20. Human Prospects for Colonizing Space

The Biology of Human Survival

Life and Death in Extreme Environments

Claude A. Piantadosi

Reviews and Awards

"Piantadosi's book is a superb primer in the field and deserves a very wide readership." --Physiology News